The Haitian masses have been mobilizing in the streets for the past 6 months or more to derail the sell-out alternatives of the Haitian dominant classes to imperialism. The most recent political election was derailed by massive popular mobilizations. The Haitian masses thwarted the imperialist plan under the slogan “WE WILL NOT OBEY”—even if only for a short time.

Unfortunately, the combativeness of the masses has been limited, and has been mostly co-opted by various sectors of the petit bourgeois linked to a consortium of the capitalist power bloc, against the political sectors represented by the anti-popular and anti-national government of the bourgeois bureaucrats’ Martelly, linked as well with a consortium of the capitalist power bloc.

There is an intense competition within the Haitian ruling classes. Cliques of petit bourgeois elements, ranging from left to right populists, are offering their services to sectors of the Haitian dominant classes and imperialism. That is the main plot of the political crisis surrounding these failed and trumped up elections. These cliques are offering themselves as either a new potential bureaucratic bourgeoisie (rural and metropolitan petit bourgeois) or a recycled bureaucratic bourgeoisie (represented by the “Fanmi Lavalas”, the political party of Aristide, or the Duvalierists, former “macoutes”). But the masses, even under the leadership of those forces, are still coming up with their own demands.

There is in an intense struggle within the power bloc of the Haitian dominant classes to seize political control of the State Apparatus by controlling the government, the center pole of the State Apparatus. All those sectors are leaning mainly on the petite bourgeoisie to achieve this political objective. Martelly was forced to cede political control of the State Apparatus but his clique and his chosen presidential candidate still remain a political alternative since they also represent the interests of a capitalist consortium within the capitalist power bloc. The new interim president (Jocelerme Privert), a former Fanmi Lavalas leader, has chosen an old-style Duvalierist (Rony Gilot) as his cabinet secretary, striving to position himself as the one capable of uniting and reconciling all of those fractions to “save the country”.

For sure, another round of political struggle and turmoil is about to start around the selection an interim Primer Minister, a new Provisional Electoral Council, the evaluation of the previous 2 rounds of elections and the rescheduling of elections… This is a perfect storm of class struggle, mainly within the power bloc, in which we are witnessing the progressive crumbling of all bourgeois democratic structures for the reproduction of class dictatorship over the popular masses (even with the presence of imperialist domination and the occupying forces).

The popular classes comprising the masses remain largely under the influence of petit bourgeois politicians. They have not yet been able to construct their own united bloc, under the leadership of the working class, to offer their AUTONOMOUS ALTERNATIVE. The most pressing objective of the masses is not the reorganization of elections. This would only benefit the Haitian dominant classes by giving legitimacy to a potential bureaucratic bourgeoisie arising from the petite bourgeoisie (as well as the existing bureaucratic bourgeoisie), and their implementation of the imperialist agenda. Instead, the most pressing objective of the masses is for them to take the path of popular uprising, to snatch and impose more political rights from the capitalist power bloc by popular violence, while even kicking imperialism (and more urgently, the occupation) out of the Haitian social formation, while continuing to build up our forces for a real blow against capitalism, feudalism and imperialist domination. Popular uprising is the tactical pathway for the construction of a genuine autonomous alternative, UNDER PROLETARIAN LEADERSHIP.

What is markedly significant in these struggles is the presence of revolutionary forces in their midst, offering class-based, autonomous popular alternatives. We have translated and are publishing below a leaflet that was circulated in those recent mobilizations.

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FEBRUARY 7, 1986 – FEBRUARY 7, 2016:

30 YEARS OF WORKING CLASS AND MASS STRUGGLES IN HAITI

It’s been 30 years since the government of Jean-Claude Duvalier fell. A lot of water has streamed under the bridge…What’s clear to us, workers/poor peasants/peddlers/students/the unemployed/the popular masses in general, is that the situation in the country has not fundamentally changed, but there is some evolution in some aspects. And those are important.

The ruling classes and the imperialists have done all they possibly could to resolve the crisis that has devastated the country for the duration of the last 30 years, but to no avail. The crisis has taken various forms depending on the moment in the conjuncture of the country. We fought, won some rights, we resisted in many ways during those 30 years, because February 7, 1986 opened the way or space for us to carry out our struggles against our enemies. However, these remain limited because the ruling classes and the imperialists continued to destroy the country.

Today, in the crucible of struggles, we have built unions and many different organizations of workers, popular political organizations, progressive and revolutionary organizations to defend our interests as people. With these organizations, we have stood up to the bosses, bigwigs who are part of the ruling classes, and their foreign allies in the towns as well as rural areas to fight the exploitation and domination on our backs.

However, we have not galvanized enough necessary strength to force them to the ground completely so we can get control and direction of the political struggle—to make the revolution our country needs in order to be liberated, to take the reins of its destiny to its total emancipation.

This is because one of the weaknesses of our struggles is the limitation of our independence/autonomy from the enemy camp. Too many times, we fight and our struggle is co-opted because we fight under the orientation and vision of the enemies that turn us away from what is really in our fundamental interests. They simply swallow us!

That’s what happened in the 2015-2016 electoral process. It was clear that none of the candidates had the vision or presented a popular alternative we could have really embraced. The political programs of the majority of them support and continue the same social order of the ruling classes and the imperialists in the country.

We did not identify ourselves either with their narrative nor their project. However, many of us believed in them without asking ourselves the question of whether these projects would really bring changes in our real interests. There were irregularities, massive fraud, brawls, and the elections came to a halt. And there were mobilizations, which continue to this day. These mobilizations are under the direction of populist-opportunist political currents and bourgeois social democrats. Facing them, we have not brought up an orientation in our interests or for our independent struggles.

Therefore, it is true that 30 years have passed. A lot remains to be done. If there should be a lesson for us workers/dominated and exploited laborers/the popular masses in general, it is that we don’t have the capacity as yet to carry out our autonomous struggles until we affirm ourselves as a social force to challenge the plans of the ruling classes and the imperialists. AND WE MUST WORK TOWARD THAT END!

In our current historical epoch, we must realize that the ruling classes, the imperialists and the petit-bourgeois puppets have destroyed the country. THEY FAILED. The task of all conscious workers, the task of all REVOLUTIONARY PROLETARIANS is to build solid and disciplined organizations. The task of all laborers, side by side with conscious workers and the REVOLUTIONARIES, is to build solid, combative and disciplined organizations in the people’s camp, cement unity in our struggles against the enemies, and work to fight under the banner of a Haitian proletarian revolutionary organization under the leadership of the only class capable of offering an alternative to the bottomless hole that the ruling classes and the imperialists, with the support of the opportunist and collaborationist petit-bourgeois, have put us in.

LET’S LEARN FROM THE STRUGGLES AND RESISTANCE WE CARRIED OUT IN THOSE 30 YEARS TO MOVE FORWARD IN THE CONSOLIDATION OF OUR ORGANIZATION IN OUR STRUGGLES!

FEBRUARY 7 IS NOT A DAY TO FIGHT TO SHARE POWER WITH THE RULING CLASSES, NOR TO SERVE THE IMPERIALISTS; IT’S A DATE FOR US TO LEARN FROM OUR STRUGGLES TO BETTER ADVANCE IN OUR CLASS INTERESTS!

LONG LIVE THE INDEPENDENT STRUGGLES OF THE WORKERS/LABORERS AND POPULAR MASSES!